Category: OLD’S COOL

Media Evokes Reflection

“Media Evokes Reflection”

I’m a very nostalgic person. Whether this nostalgia derives from relationships such as friends and family or through mediums such as music, moving image and print media. Growing up I was always filming and taking photos and this is something I have continued to do into my young adult life.

For my first element, I have put together a series of three videos. These three videos are montages of footage I have filmed throughout 2015, 2016 and 2017. Dr Joanne Garde-Hansen states that [media] is the “main source for recording, constructing, archiving and disseminating public and private histories in the twenty first century” (2011, p. 174) My series of videos can be considered an archive, as they reference information about what I was doing at certain points in time, where I was living and with whom I was experiencing events.

https://vimeo.com/211141555

Wilson (2011) noted that private formats such as the home video often evoke connections between the past and the present that ultimately claims ground between identity and memory. My video artifacts support Wilson’s claim as without these videos, my memories of these periods in time could become disjointed and askew. Scholar Losé van Dijck (2007) says that media is pivotal to the construction of individual and collective identity, through which people make sense of their lives and the lives of others and connects past to future. These videos help me connect relationships and memories of the past and reflect upon personal choices I made during those points in time.

https://vimeo.com/211142123

Things I personally enjoy about these series of videos, is that I often film on days that are not necessarily ‘milestones’ or events of high importance. These moments are short periods in time of friends eating, drinking or engaging in conversation. Most of the time, people don’t even know I’m recording. I really enjoy this element to these videos, as they act as prompts to memories I otherwise could have forgotten. I cherish these memories, and view this footage as some form of autobiography. Iosé van Dijck (2007) states that we commonly cherish our mediated memories as a “formative part of our autobiographical and cultural identities”. Dijck continues to explain that the accumulated items typically reflect the shaping of an individual in a historical time frame.

https://vimeo.com/211142552

When viewing home videos, it is important to acknowledge that the memories evoked are often constructed or assembled. Author on Pre-Digital Media, Alex Bevan, mains that viewers construct home movies for anticipation of when they will revisit them, that these videos are not just a means to record that period in time, but how the recorder would like to view those specific events in the future (2012). I question whether Bevan’s theory is applicable to my videos. Although I definitely agree that I often construct or film these videos in anticipation of viewing them in the future, I’m not necessarily sure that I film in a way that constructs how I want to view my past.

REFERENCES

Bevan, A, 2012. ‘Nostalgia for pre-digital media in Mad Men’, Television & New Media, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 546-559.

Garde-Hansen, J 2011, Media and Memory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Van Dijck, J 2007. Mediated memories in the Digital Age, Cultural memory in the present, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

Wilson, S 2011, ‘Remixing memory through home movies’, Image & Narrative, vol. 12, no. 2.

16mm film

16mm film

  • 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film, with other common film gauges including 8 and 35mm.
  • It is generally used for non-theatrical (ie. industrial, educational) film making or for low budget motion pictures.
  • It also existed as a popular amateur or home movie making format for several decades, alongside 8 mm film, and later Super 8 film.
  • RCA-Victor introduced a 16 mm sound movie projector in 1932 and developed an optical sound-on-film 16 mm camera, released in 1935.

The Library

In-class exercise:

PART 1

How I might use the library for this assessment:

  • Use the new RMIT Library Database search engine to access a broader range of information I otherwise previously didn’t know I was able to access.
    • Use quotation marks to search specific words and phrases.
  • Use the hard copy archives of ‘old media’ (Ie. pre-digital).
  • Use the Library as a space to concentrate and focus on my assessment.

Part 2 – Using various media, find three things that represent the library to you and document it.

Whenever I am in the library (or any form of educational space alone) I often find myself listening to music, and even discovering new music? As I type in a genre and often fall down a “rabbit hole” of discovery of new music. The only downfall here is I’m often focussed and at the end of my study / working session I completely forget the music I just “discovered”.
Video Player

BOOKS: Potentially the most cliche and universal symbol of Libraries. It will be interesting to see if this is till the symbol in say 30 years, as more digital moves in and hard copy print is on the way out..

When I think of the library I think of the hundreds of black keyboards lined up on the tables in nearly every room. I guess you could even suggest that the keyboards between desktop and laptop could be some form of old and new media… OR, just a progression of technology.

WEEK 1 – OLD’S COOL

ALUMINUM MOTORCYCLE RIM

Video Player
  • The two main types of motorcycle rims are solid wheels, in which case the rim and spokes are all cast as one unit, usually in aluminum, or spoke wheels, where the motorcycle rims are “laced” with spokes.
  • Other materials used are magnesium alloy and even carbon fiber.
  • For the wheels I filmed, these are made from cast aluminum, these are commonly the stock wheels on a huge number of motorcycle models. They cost around $500 -$600 each.

References:
http://www.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com/motorcyclerims.html

CIGARETTE DISPOSAL BIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mounted cigarette litter units can be easily mounted to existing infrastructure including council bins, street signs and poles or brick, and concrete walls.

There are two sizes available to suit the needs of any area. The Compact 300(mm) can comfortably hold up to 450 butts in the powder coated internal canister, and is ideal for areas with low traffic or where aesthetics is essential, can be coupled with increased servicing.

The Compact 500(mm) is one of the largest wall units on the market and can comfortably hold 800 butts. This is ideal for locations where smokers congregate outside buildings or in public spaces, providing a safe and design friendly alternative to traditional cigarette litter solutions.

References:
http://www.enviropoles.com/latest-news/the-environment-foots-the-billion-dollar-bill-of-cigarette-litter.html